A MAN cleared of terrorist charges has spoken of his "disgust" at the 7/7 London bombings.
Talking to the Guardian after the verdict was announced, Mousa Brown, 41, of Kitchener Road, Walthamstow said his family life had been "destroyed" by 18 months in Belmarsh maximum security prison.
Mr Brown had been accused of providing and receiving weapons training and his trial at Woolwich Crown Court lasted more than four months.
While he was behind bars and under suspicion his mother died, his wife was accused of being a suicide bomber and his 12-year-old son was bullied at school.
He said he had to fight to attend his mother's funeral and was only allowed to do so handcuffed to four prison guards.
His friend of 20 years, 50-year-old Mohammed Hamid who called himself "Osama bin London", was convicted of organising terrorist training camps, including one attended by the failed 21/7 bombers.
A former scout, Mr Brown said there was "nothing new" in the camping and paintballing trips he and his friends took in the English countryside, sometimes with their wives and children, but he had not seen Hamid for six months before his arrest.
Talking of the 7/7 bombings, he said: "I was disgusted by it. On July 6 my eight-year-old daughter was travelling on the Tube. If this thing had happened 24 hours before, she would've been killed.
"If someone had said to me the attacks were a good thing, I would have strangled that guy."
He claims British intelligence officers took him into a room after he had been charged and his solicitor had left, and said they could help him if he informed on friends.
"They kept talking about how much I earned and asked how I was going to pay my mortgage in prison," he said.
Mr Brown, a self-employed builder, met Hamid when he joined the Waltham Forest District League Sunday football team, which Hamid coached.
"I wasn't Muslim at the time and he was Muslim with a small "m". We used to go raving to acid raves. It was an ordinary life for a Londoner. He was a fun guy," he said.
Recalling his arrest, in the middle of the night, Mr Brown said he thought he was dreaming.
He said he felt the same in court when the prosecution played footage of the friends paintballing, as apparent proof they were part of an Al Qaeda cell.
"I was expecting to see Jeremy Beadle jump out somewhere," he said. "It was such a joke."
He also described life in prison as "dehumanising".
"We're treated worse than pond life. When you're accused of being a terrorist you're on a par with paedophiles. The murderers get a much better deal," he said.
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